College Counseling Advice

I get many calls from parents regarding when to start test prep for either the SAT or ACT. After fifteen years of training thousands of Connecticut students in test prep, I know the answer to this question very clearly: yesterday was the best time to start, today is the next best time. Every year, late […]

“Whatever you said to Grace has made her distinctly less whiny!” Mrs. Bernadino said about her daughter, a typically privileged high school teen along the Connecticut shoreline. “Strange that she comes home from SAT class and mentions that she’s grateful for all that she has.” Grace had paid attention to my world map mini-lecture. I […]

“I didn’t expect my daughter to enjoy SAT class. She’s shy. But she has made a couple of new friends. She also feels she learns better when discussing answers.” Mrs. Terrence said about her daughter Sophie, a junior from Essex, Connecticut. I’m still delighted when I hear that students enjoy SAT class. I know they […]

The results of early action and early decision programs are coming in and my e-mail and phone is blowing up with anxiety and an occasional “I’m so happy and relieved.” I’ll address those who are anxious. Most of College Counseling Connecticut’s clients that are applying to early programs are applying to either elite colleges or […]

“These kids are under so much pressure. I didn’t want to stress John out.” Mrs. Giles said about her son. I happened to know her son a bit because he attended an SAT class that I taught in Madison. John did not appear stressed out. Mrs. Giles agreed that John wasn’t particularly anxious but she […]

Tal Ben-Shahar teaches the most popular course at Harvard. He’s a leader in the field of positive psychology and his course, a shock to the pretentious, is about happiness. Among the many nuggets of wisdom that Ben-Shahar presents is a 4 archetype examination of people on the happiness spectrum. Unquestionably, most everyone is a mixture […]

Harvard and Stanford, among many other colleges, suggest that GAP Years lead to “uniformly positive” results (Harvard) and bring “viewpoints that further enrich our student body (Stanford). I am a big fan of the gap year. While I have worked with several thousand college bound students from Connecticut, I have helped structure only a few […]

One of my friends was shopping for a house in the Shoreline, CT area.  He is from the Greater Farmington Valley so he would take trips to visit Guilford, Madison, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook and East Lyme.  During one of his Old Saybrook tours, his real estate agent took him and his family to Fenwick, […]

This college counseling session happened years ago before I was more skilled at convincing parents and students to get over the fear of college admissions rejection. “I don’t think she’ll get in so Olivia is not applying to Brown.” Mrs. Kaplan said about her daughter, a senior at Hopkins in New Haven, CT. Mrs. Kaplan […]

Despite serving residents of the affluent state of Connecticut, most all of our college counseling clients will have to evaluate taking college loans and then dealing – or having their children – deal with college debt. Should my child take out loans and be in debt for college?  This is both an emotional and a […]